Great coffee has quirks; this is why your coffee looks weird
The power of diversity for better quality and flavor
Why do some of our coffees have a rainbow of colors, unlike anything you see in bags of coffee from supermarkets? What're these white flakes in my grounds? Specialty coffee is different. These are features, not flaws!
These beans don't have uniform color
Recently I had a brand new customer get their first bag of our coffee delivered to their house. They rushed it to the kitchen to open and smell it. About 5 minutes later I got a message:
"Something is wrong with my coffee! It smells great, but I think I got the bag you put all the bad beans you're tossing out in. They're all different colors. Some seem pretty light, like maybe they didn't finish?"
Light and medium roasted specialty coffees show high color variety because we prioritize showcasing unique, complex characteristics of specific origins over consistency. Unlike dark roasts, which mask differences behind a uniform, dark, oily appearance, lighter roasting reveals the bean's natural color transformation. Those subtle, unique color variations are indicators of that bean's distinct origin, density and processing.
Our coffees are roasted by origin, in an approach tailored to that bean's characteristics, in small batches (20lbs) and then hand-sorted at least 3 times.
Hand-sorting process:
Sort 1 - While it's cooling in the agitator, we pluck out obvious quakers, the ones that got stuck in the roaster and either didn't roast enough (yellow-green) or were burnt (black).
Sort 2 - As we move the roast into its holding bin, we do another sort, looking for the lightest and darkest beans, quakers, and (in some rare instances) rocks!
Sort 3 - While weighing out the coffee to blend and bag, we give it a final sort as a quality check.
The beans that make it into the bag are part of the flavor profile. Feel free to grind and brew. That said, if you're brewing up something pretty light, like our Janie and Tea Cake, and you find the flavors a bit too bright, tart or fruit-forward:
Sort 4 (optional) - You can pick out the lightest beans before you grind and just use the ones on the darker side to adjust the flavor profile of the coffee. Put the light ones back in the bag or in an airtight container for roommates, partners or friends who love a bright light roast coffee!
The light-colored flakes in your coffee grounds
Another bit of feedback I get from first-time light-to-medium roast specialty coffee drinkers is:
"My coffee has dandruff!"
I've actually only heard that descriptor for it once, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. Many people notice light, papery flakes in the grounds.
Again, this is a feature, not a bug. In dark roast coffees, this slight parchment (often called chaff) from the interior of the bean is burnt away in the last phases of the roast, giving much of the smoky flavor you'll find in dark roasted coffees. But that inner skin, when toasted just enough to get that parchment texture, actually promotes our coffees' natural sweetness.
We roast our coffees slow and low to elongate caramelization and craft naturally sweeter coffees. These flakes are a major contributor to that sweetness. It dissolves straight into the brew like sugar.
If for some strange reason you don't care for the chaff, getting rid of it is actually quite easy. When you grind your coffee, give the grounds a little blow and the chaff will fly right out. Give it another blow when your grounds are in the brew basket to get rid of more. (It may be a bit messy, so do it over the sink.)
But I don't recommend it. We strive for pure coffees that are naturally sweet and the chaff is a significant factor in our flavor profiles.